DATE: Saturday, August 9, 1997              TAG: 9708090362

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   66 lines

LOCAL BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU PRESIDENT LEAVING FOR CHARLOTTE

Jerry Grohowski, president of the local Better Business Bureau, is leaving to take over the Better Business Bureau of the Southern Piedmont in Charlotte, N.C.

The Better Business Bureau for the Greater Hampton Roads announced Grohowski's resignation Friday. His last day will be Sept. 5.

During his 11-year tenure, Grohowski is credited with making the local bureau a strong advocate for the region's consumers. The group has about 1,800 member businesses that support its free services to consumers.

``It shocked us all,'' said Dan Sykes, the local bureau's board chairman. ``Jerry's been there for years and the board was looking forward to many years to come.''

Grohowski could not be reached for comment Friday. But his wife, Laurie, said the move does not reflect on this area.

``He just felt like it was time for a change,'' she said.

Laurie Grohowski will become interim president while the board of directors searches for a new president. She is also director of Dispute Settlement Center, a Better Business Bureau affiliate.

She will join her husband in Charlotte once both positions are filled, she said.

The Grohowskis believe they are leaving behind a stronger bureau than they found.

``It's well-positioned for the future,'' Laurie Grohowski said.

But for Jerry Grohowski, the opportunity in Charlotte was too good to turn down.

The Charlotte Better Business Bureau serves a more concentrated metropolitan area with several large corporate headquarters, Laurie Grohowski said. It has more than 2,000 members, and Jerry Grohowski ``feels it can become one of the largest bureaus on the East Coast given the right nurturing,'' she said.

``It's an incredible opportunity.'' said Sykes, new ventures director for Landmark Communications Inc., parent of The Virginian-Pilot.

Meanwhile, Sykes, who became board chairman of the bureau last week, plans to search locally and within the national Better Business Bureau community to fill Grohowski's position.

Under Grohowski's leadership the local bureau grew from a staff of a few people to about 20. It moved from a small office in Norfolk's Ghent to larger offices on Tidewater Drive, later selling that property and moving to its current location on Virginian Drive near Thole Street in Norfolk. That move gives it security for the next 20 years, Laurie Grohowski said.

He brought the bureau up to date technologically. More than 1,200 consumers a day call its 24-hour ``Anytime Line'' to automatically receive reports about specific businesses.

Grohowski also opened a Peninsula office with an advisory board to better serve consumers and members on the other side of the James River.

``He took a very moderate approach to consumerism and to the business community,'' Laurie Grohowski said. ``He wasn't a Ralph Nader-type.''

That allowed him to work closely with local industry groups like the Hampton Roads Auto Dealers Association and the Tidewater Builders Association.

He was also instrumental in the 1990 formation of the Dispute Settlement Center, the region's only nonprofit mediation center. The center's caseload has risen from 12 cases in the first year to more than 300 this year, Laurie Grohowski said.

The Center is managed by the Business and Consumer Foundation, but there's a lot of cross-pollination with the local bureau.

A retired Army officer, Grohowski worked as a Pentagon spokesman and later at the Polizos Agency, an advertising firm, before becoming president of the Better Business Bureau here 11 years ago.

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